Wednesday, June 4, 2008

More food and books Pasadena-style

Ugh.So after a failure to do anything yesterday but waste gas, time, and spot a C-list actor, I decided to once again kill some gas and time and head east to Pasadena for the evening. Afraid of being late and missing David Benioff's reading at Vroman's, I headed over to the area super-early, going to Alhambra's Fosselman's ice cream shop first. Parking was easy, which was great, and there was a Wells Fargo next door for those of us who never have cash (because we buy gas with cash to save money and thus run out), so I got money from the ATM and paid the damn $2 surcharge (damn!).Then I got a cone of chocolate-chip cookie dough. A lot of flavor options, but nothing particularly exciting. Honestly, where are all the chocolate varieties? Anyhow, the minute I stepped outside my single scoop fell off the cone, so I went back in and got another scoop (free). It's good ice cream, sure, but do I feel the need to EVER go back to Alhambra. The ice cream was a good rich vanilla with a tolerable number of cookie dough chunks. But the cookie dough was not chocolate-chip. The chocolate chips were separate, which is not cool. They were hard and the texture of the ice cream was then difficult.So then I went to South Pasadena to the Fair Oaks Pharmacy on Route 66 because it was on the Travel Channel special. I'd already had ice cream, so I got a grilled cheese. It's a cute place, and I recommend it for window-shopping, but holy crap was the grilled cheese awful. It tasted like a giant melted Cheezit. Blech.So after that, I went up to Colorado Boulevard and walked around. Parking was a breeze. That part of Pasadena (hell, all of Colorado from Target to the 134, as far as I'm aware, is awesome. I chilled out in Target, bought a bra that turned out to be a different size from what it said on the damn hanger (damn!), bought the awesome Isabella's Original Chocolate Chip cookies (no walnuts!) at Famima!, and then toured the incroyable Vroman's.Vroman's rocks.I wish I could say I bought something at Vroman's, the food and wrong bra cost too much, so I just drooled over the extensive travel section (I meant to go to Distant Lands, but I can only do so much), all the little knick knacks, and just the general awesomeness of the store. Benioff was late (HA! I'm not the only one--and he got a parking ticket), but I stuck around. Good for me because the excerpt he read sounded really interesting, considering it's yet ANOTHER World War II novel. Also, Benioff seems like a super-nice, not-at-all-egocentric kind of guy. Good for him. If I weren't broke to HELL, I would have bought the book.So go buy it, so I don't feel so bad. And buy it from Vroman's or another independent store. You'll feel the good inside.So, yeah, Pasadena rocks.